1995 - The Worst Year in WWE History

   In 1995, we were stuck in the middle of the "New Generation."  Although there were several gems like Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, and Razor Ramon, 1995 can mostly be remembered by terrible gimmicks and awful main events.  This was the least profitable time period in WWE history.  People can claim that guys like Diesel, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels weren't draws but they didn't exactly have a lot to work with in those days.  Therefore, it's not fair to put the entire blame on their shoulders.  

List of Horrible Gimmicks

Mantaur

Tekno Team 2000

Man Mountain Rock

Avatar

Phantasio

"Make a Difference" Fatu

Jean-Pierre LaFitte

Isaac Yankem

Kama, the Supreme Fighting Machine

Xanta Klaus

   There's probably a lot more I'm missing but you get the picture.  Mantaur was supposed to be half man/half bull, somewhat of a take of the Greek mythical creature the Minotour.  He wore a large bull mask to the ring and was even billed from the island of Crete.  Tekno Team 2000 were a team of a nobody and Erik Watts, who was only in the business for nepotism.  They were supposed to represent the future but more realistically represented future endeavors.  Man Mountain Rock was the former Maxx Payne of WCW. continuing his hard rock gimmick, with electric guitar in hand.  The most memorable thing about him was his WWF logo-shaped guitar.

   

   Avatar was one of the many gimmicks Al Snow had.  This particular gimmick involved carrying his mask to the ring and then putting it on to wrestle.  Phantasio was a masked magician that frankly, I don't even remember.  After the breakup of the Headshrinkers, they had Fatu talk about growing up in a bad neighborhood.  He wore loud colors and had a horrible theme song.  He preached about wanting to "make a difference" but it fell on deaf ears.  After Jacques Rougeau retired, Pierre from the Quebecers was repackaged as a pirate named Jean-Pierre LaFitte.  He was that year's "Repo Man," as he was known for stealing things.  

   As many wrestling fans know, Kane had several gimmicks before striking gold with the Big Red Machine.  After a stint in Smokey Mountain Wrestling, Glen Jacobs debuted in the WWF as Jerry Lawler's dentist.  For irony, Isaac Yankem D.D.S. had horrible teeth.  UFC hadn't quite caught on yet but they decided to bring the former Papa Shango in again as Kama, the Supreme Fighting Machine. Thankfully, this man became The Godfather a few years later.  Then we come to Xanta Klaus, an evil Santa from the South Pole.  Thankfully, he later went to ECW where be became Balls Mahoney.

Good wrestlers with bad gimmicks

   Beyond the above abominations, there were several wrestlers that were well known and good in the ring, yet straddled with awful gimmicks.  One that comes to mind is Shane Douglass. He was ECW's hottest heel at the time and the WWF gave him a teacher gimmick as Dean Douglass.  Before he became Triple H, the Game was a Connecticut blue blood named Hunter Hearst-Helmsley.  Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart became the masked Who, which is what I assume their excuse for bringing back the "Who's On First" routine.

   Before being Stone Cold, Steve Austin was known as the Ringmaster.  Among the bad gimmicks, something that was questionable but ended up working was Goldust.  Dustin Rhodes had a lot to live up to in his father Dusty so he reinvented himself as the sexually ambiguous Goldust.  Then there's wrestling standout Chris Candido, who along with Sunny, were portrayed as fitness gurus called the Body Donnas.  Well, at least we got Sunny out of it!

The Undertaker's monster of the week

   During this time period, the Undertaker kept getting fed monster upon monster.  After vanquishing Kamala, Giant Gonzales, and Yokozuna in previous years, it was more of the same in 1995.  He conquered the returning King Kong Bundy at WrestleMania. However, this was somewhat of a necessary evil.  If not for his battle with Mabel, who injured the Undertaker, he never would have become the great wrestler he was, against ring technicians like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and others.  Getting injured was the WWF's wake-up call to find the Undertaker a different variety of opponents.

Horrible Main Events

   Let's start off with the elephant in the room; WrestleMania's main event of Bam Bam Bigelow vs.  Lawrence Taylor.  There are some positives, believe it or not!  I'll get those out of the way real quick!  They trusted Bam Bam to lead LT to a good match.  He was trustworthy and safe to work with.  Also, Taylor did a much better job than expected.  If not for Bigelow's successful stint in ECW, he might not have recovered!  Unfortunately, the negatives far outweigh the positives.  It had no business being at WrestleMania, let alone being the Main Event!  Lawrence Taylor was a great football player but he certainly wasn't relevant in 1995.  You had two Diesel/Psycho Sid main events, as well as Diesel and Bam Bam vs. Sid & Tatanka, among others.  Yet, the worst main event of all time was at SummerSlam when Diesel put the title on the line against Mabel, someone completely undeserving of a main event push.  

Bret Hart's odyssey of lower mid-card opponents

   Bret started the year fine at the Royal Rumble challenging Diesel for the WWF Championship. Unfortunately, that match was riddled with run-ins.  Bret had a forgettable match with Bob Backlund at WrestleMania and Hart himself admitted it was one of his worst matches ever.  Afterwards, Bret Hart was tasked with having matches with lower mid-card opponents.  He wrestled Hakushi, which was a good match with a bad storyline.  He reignited his feud with Jerry Lawler by ending it with an honorable mention for worst gimmick match, the Kiss My Foot match.  Lawler soon sicked his evil dentist Isaac Yankem on Hart.  However, Bret wasn't done, as he had to vanquish the man that stole his famous leather jacket, Jean-Pierre LaFitte.  Bret's saving grace was defeating Diesel for the gold at Survivor Series and defending his newly won title in an incredible match with the British Bulldog.

   Meanwhile, Razor Ramon had his never-ending feud with Jeff Jarrett, we were introduced to a hog farmer named Henry Godwinn, and Savio Vega debuted as the "Caribbean Legend" who no one ever heard of.  Of course, there's WrestleMania XI, which in my opinion is the worst WrestleMania of all time!  That might have to be its own blog!  There were so many things wrong with 1995 in the WWF and I'm sure I'm missing some things.  All of these things to me make 1995 the worst year in WWE history.

P.S. - WCW wasn't exactly killing it that year either!




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